Making it yours…the beginning of designing

This weekend I was at a painting seminar at my local chapter with Amy Mogish. We had time to chat as we were prepping our pieces and one of the girls said that she just realized recently that she could make designs her own by changing things instead of making it exactly the way the teacher did hers.

When I thought about it I realize this is the beginning of designing. First we use a different surface, then a different color on a few elements. Next we are combining a few patterns to create a project…..and then we try our hand at making our own designs.

I had made some changes to Amy’s original design “Simple Goodness” which was placed on a tin cake stand. I wanted to place mine on a canvas because I was going to put it beside an antique cake stand that was my mothers.

Amy’s original design on cake stand

I enjoy putting mixed media elements in my painting so I put some of Tim Holt’s tissue papers on the side with Deco-page and then put a wash of Honey Brown over the edges. Once I was finished with the piece I put some washi tape around the edges to accent some of the colors in the painting. I love how the print shows through parts of the tape.

When I was prepping my piece I missed the instructions 🙂 that said we should sponge the color Graphite over the Black background. I was concerned about sponging the background and possibly going over my painting so I decided to stencil in the background.
I wasn’t sure what stencil to use so I chose two different stencils and stenciled on a clear transparency to see which I might like. You can see that I was choosing between two different Rebecca Baer stencils (www.rebeccabaer.com).

The background was a happy accident and I was pleased with the results. I encourage you to play and make your projects your own.
Happy Creating,
Jane